The Islesboro Forum

Penobscot Bay: Exploitation, Collapse & Now, Recovery
2016-08-28 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | ME
Karen Alexander, Bill Leavenworth, James Wilson.

Penobscot Bay lies at the midpoint of the coast, creating the confluence of northern and southern waters, with the river, a watershed. Chellie Pingree, Maine’s 1st District representative to Congress notes, “Our lives are so affected by so much of the watershed, up and down the river…this is a critically important region to the rest of the state. People care deeply about the health of the Bay because our economies are built on tourism and fishing.” The Penobscot Watershed Conference in which she took part in May had 300 conferees considering the region’s environment, industries, and climate, the Penobscot’s history and future impact upon us. Bill Leavenworth, was a participant, looking into the history of fisheries, possible reasons for their declines and the likelihood of fisheries restoration. He is one of the principal historians for the Fresh and Salt Water Fishery research team, under the leadership of Professor Emeritus James Wilson. Wilson is a prominent marine biologist particularly concerned with policy and fisheries governance systems. Both experts work with Karen Alexander, also a member of the team. A research fellow at UMA Amherst, she is an author, has worked on three or more movies about the Marine ecosystem and is completing her PhD at the University of New Hampshire. The three university experts will present visuals for us, and a panel discussion on their findings and expectations for the Penobscot, a prime element in the current life and future of the State of Maine, its people and chief industries. Prepare your questions!

A Creative Life: Exploring Film, Television, and the Performing Arts in America
2016-08-21 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | ME
George Stevens, Jr.
George is among the third generation of Stevens who summer on Islesboro, a well-known and admired good friend and neighbor, he preserves and continues the family influence on American taste and history through its enormous output for culture and the arts.
George grew up in Hollywood, son of director George Stevens (Alice Adams, Swing Time, A Place in the Sun, Shane, Giant) and went to Washington in 1962 to serve under Edward R. Morrow at the United States Information Agency, as head of USIA’s Motion Picture Service in the Kennedy administration. His legacy is a 50-year career dedicated to motion pictures and the performing arts. It includes establishing two enduring institutions: Founding Director for the America Film Institute, 37 year co-creator and writer-producer of the Kennedy Center Honors. Presented an Oscar in 2012 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement”, he also has been awarded 17 Emmys, 2 Peabody Awards, and the Humanitas Prize for his television shows. He has received eight awards from the Writers Guild of America for outstanding writing, and the Paul Selvin Award for writing that embodies civil rights and liberties.
Mr. Stevens has published two books: Conversations with the Great Movie Makers of Hollywood’s Golden Age (2006), prompted by a Seminar Series Stevens initiated in 1969, and Conversations with the Great Moviemakers – The Next Generation (2012).
He has served as Co-Chairman of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities since his appointment by President Obama.

Common Ground: Recent Projects by Selldorf Architects
2016-08-14 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | ME
Annabelle Selldorf.

Annabelle is the principal of Selldorf Architects, a 65-person architectural practice she developed in New York City, 1988. The firm’s guiding principles are rooted in humanism, designing the optimal experience for the individual. The firm’s work brings to life public and private spaces, conflating contemporary sensibilities with classic impact. One senses architectural solutions that fuse purpose and poetry.
Selldorf clients include cultural institutions and universities, among them: the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the Clark Art Institute, Neue Galerie New York, New York University, Brown University, a number of galleries as Hauser & Wirth, and Gladstone Gallery. Exhibitions include Frieze Masters, Gagosian Gallery, and the Venice Art Biennale, to name a prominent few. In other directions Selldorf designed the award winning Sims Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility, a new recycling facility and education center on the Brooklyn waterfront, and a school In Africa.

A R R T! - Activist Artists Creating & Collaborating for Change
2016-08-07 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | ME
Natasha Mayers, Nora Tryon.

Presenting artists Nora and Natasha are the organizing members of ARRT!, a collective project of the Union of Maine Visual Artists. ARRT! provides images for progressive organizations in Maine to help them get messages to State residents with a colorfully compelling alternative to the corporate-driven media environment.
Bright banners, placards, props, digital designs and video projections will be displayed and discussed, indicating how a small, dedicated business with an artistic approach, has spoken effectively to current issues of environmental hazards, health care access, social justice, peace, civil discourse, immigrant rights, climate change, economic equality, voting rights, food security – you name another!

Inspiring Visual Story Tellers, Creativity & Communication – Rockport, Maine to Around the World
2016-07-31 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | ME
Meg Weston.

Meg is a long-time Maine resident and leader in higher education, business and consulting in international imaging. She was appointed President of Maine Media Workshops + College in February, 2012. In 2014, she led Maine Media in a partnership with the Town of Rockport creating the first municipally owned fiber optic network in Maine, bringing gigabit connectivity to the college’s campus and to the town.
Meg has a wealth of experience in higher education including service as Chair of a legislative commission on higher education governance, and on the Board of Trustees of the University of Maine System. She has an MFA in creative non-fiction and photography, and has taught digital imaging. One of the core faculty of the Maine Media MFA program, she mentors students on creative writing projects.
As leader in imaging and communications businesses, Meg was president of the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, and president and COO of the U.S. photofinishing operations of Konica Corporation.
Meg’s passion is photographing volcanoes; her images of erupting lava and fire from more than 30 trips around the world has prompted solo exhibits. Included in her many activities, she leads workshops on writing and photography in the geologically active regions of Iceland and Hawaii.

Venison & Democracy - What Pasty Pans & Ticks Have in Common
2016-07-24 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | ME
Sandy Oliver.

Sandy, a revered Maine Food Writer, Columnist, and Speaker, is a long- time resident on Islesboro. Forty years a food historian, she writes regularly for Maine magazines and newspapers. The breadth of her historical knowledge and interests is present in her books:
Maine Home Cooking, 175 Recipes from Down East Kitchens;
Food in Colonial and Federal America;
Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Foods at Sea and Ashore in the 19th Century; and
Giving Thanks: A Thanksgiving History with Recipes from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie, and others.
She will describe for us how elite food became a symbol of culinary and cultural independence in America, an intriguing matter!
Sandy speaks often to professional food groups, historical organizations, and the like. She teaches, sharing her kitchen for hands on instruction, develops cooking programs, is a popular dinner host, and spends time with community organizations and town governance when not attending extensive vegetable gardens for her table, friend’s and neighbor’s.

We’re Safe Here . . . or Aren’t We?
2016-07-17 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | ME
Ryan Martin, Leila Pike, TL Tutor.
The island is waking up and taking action to anticipate dramatic changes ahead.
Islesboro’s new generation of expertise, represented by TL Tutor, Leila Pike, and Ryan Martin will present how our island community is positioned, or not, to deal with the threats and challenges of climate change, discussing sea level rise, renewable energy, local food production, and steps we can take to get ready for the future.
With both a BA and MA in Engineering from McGill University, Leila Pike is now a project engineer specializing in coastal modeling, water resources, and hydraulics for a firm in Portland. She has been involved in evaluating Maine’s coastal resiliency, and modeling 100-year coastal storm surge flood levels for Maine and Louisiana, a part of FEMA’s flood remapping appeals process.
TL Tutor, one in the sixth generation of an Islesboro family, received his BS in Economics, then back-packed through South America learning about sustainable habitats, artists, permaculture, and skilled stone-working projects. Returning to our island he created his own project, building a solar-powered workshop for the family business, Hatch & Sons. He then moved to Portland to get involved in renewable energy. TL now works with ReVision Energy as a solar and heat pump design specialist, concerned with reducing energy bills and carbon footprints, the practical investments in home heating and energy efficiency.
Ryan Martin is known by many as the Horticulture teacher at Islesboro Central School, for a program that brings thousands of pounds of organic produce to the island to engage student learning at the school’s on–campus farm. He has completed his MA in Sustainable Food Systems, and teaches, though more occasionally, at a local community college.

Soldier Girls
2016-07-10 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | ME
Helen Thorpe.

Helen is the much awaited 2015 guest who had to cancel at the last hour. She’s up to something new about which we may hear, but, chiefly, she’ll discuss Soldier Girls, her compelling book and interviews that reveal so much we non-combatants do not know about women’s lives while serving in conflicts, Afghanistan and Iraq.

TIM GLIDDEN
2015-08-30 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | ME
President, Maine Coast Heritage Trust: “Land Conservation in the 21st Century: Implications for local and island trusts and stewardship.”

WILLIAM G. ROSENBERG, PhD
2015-08-23 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | ME
Davis Center for Russian & Eurasian Studies, Harvard: “Russia & the West: Some Observations about Old Wine Once Again in New Bottles”

ANGEL BRAESTRUP
2015-08-16 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
Foundation Director, Specialist in philanthropy and strategic Investments: “Time, Talent & Treasure, Making the Most of What We Give”

MICHAEL E. KERR, M.D
2015-08-09 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
Psychiatrist specializing in the family: “A Radically New Understanding of How Relationships Work”

CHARLES F. GAUVIN
2015-08-02 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
Executive Director, Maine Audubon: “Can Maine’s Iconic Wildlife, Particularly Shorebirds, Endure a Changing Climate?”

HELEN THORPE
2015-07-26 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
Veteran Reporter, her book on American women at war in the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq: “Soldier Girls”

RICH WILSON
2015-07-19 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
World Adventurer and Master Sailor: ” Leave Antartica to Starboard, Race France to France”

Richard Blanco
2015-07-11 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
US Inaugural Poet, 2013: Acclaimed poet, memoirist and entertaining storyteller, looks back with awe on rare roots.

David Arnold
2014-08-17 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
David Arnold, co-producer of a global warming exhibit, creator of a second exhibit in planning that compares the health of coral reefs “then and now”. Awards for environmental work and reporting excellence –
“Photographing Climate Change Above and Below the Waterline”

Alan Weisman
2014-08-10 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
Alan Weisman, Author with multiple distinguished book prizes, and journalist, reporting from around the world for news magazines, quarterlies and Public Broadcasting –
“Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?”

Scott Hamilton
2014-08-03 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
Scott Hamilton, Director of world-famous Explorers Club, and President of Dooley Intermed –
“New Sight in the Third World, Restoring Vision in the Forbidden Kingdom”

Dr. George Rupp
2014-07-27 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
Dr. George Rupp, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs –
“ The New Face of War, Throngs of Uprooted People”

Landon Thomas Jr.
2014-07-20 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
Landon Thomas Jr., New York Times reporter on international finance and an Islesboro summer resident –
“The Euro-Zone Crisis and Emerging Markets – Russia, Brazil and Turkey in particular”

Peter Willcox
2014-07-13 17:30 - 18:30 UTC | Up-Island Church, Islesboro, ME, United States
Peter Willcox, Greenpeace Captain, and Islesboro Resident
“Making world Peace – Ventures of a Troublemaker”
